Medicine cabinets



D. LA BARRE MEDICINE CABINETS 3 Sheets-Sheet l Filed July 2'?, 1953 I I I I I |:U I l I I I i L1. *F-'II il .l IIIIIIIII l.

INVENTOR. DWIGIIIr LGBARRE ATTORNEYS Nov. 13, 1956 D. LA BARRE MEDICINE CABINETS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 27, 1955 INVENTOR.

DWIGHT LQBARRE Amor-:NES

United States Patent O MEDICINE CABINETS Dwight La Barre, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Omas and La Barre, Centerline, Mich., a partnership Application `luly 27, 1953, Serial No. 370,536

2 Claims. (Cl. S12-209) This invention relates to a medicine cabinet for insertion in a building wall, and more particularly to a medicine cabinet having a novel and inventive sliding door construction and a sliding door releasable catch.

This invention is related to the medicine cabinet construction described in my patent application Serial No. 133,585, led December 17, 1949, for Medicine Cabinet, and is an improved construction over the structure there disclosed and claimed.

One of the important elements in medicine cabinets is the storage of poisonous medicines and of drugs which become dangerous to human health upon excessive consumption. ln order to reduce the dangers represented by storing such materials in a medicine cabinet accessible in part to children, a novel and inventive door catch has been devised in combination with the sliding cabinet door. There are no exposed exterior elements to the catch so that it can be controlled only within the contines of the upper portion of the cabinet body itself. In this way access to the poison shelf by children is immeasurably reduced.

Another inventive feature of the improved construc tion is embodied in the sliding door construction itself in combination with the cabinet body, wherein an improved guide run channel is provided simplifying the door construction and making for a noise reducing, stress absorbing, efficient and more easily controlled counterbalanced action.

It is an object of this invention to provide a poison shelf in a medicine cabinet, access to which is relatively difficult, and is gained only by operation of a door catch embodied within the contines of the upper portion of said cabinet.

Another object is the provision of a sliding door for a medicine cabinet which operates to a point controlled by a movable stop, which stop lies within the contines of said cabinet and relatively within its upper portion.

A further object is to provide a sliding door catch which is positive in action, and which releases the door for further travel in an upward direction upon manual actuation of the catch, at the same time being inclective as a stop upon travel of the door in the downward direction. Another object is the provision of a sliding door construction for a medicine cabinet which embodies a noise reducing, stress absorbing, efficient sliding door run guide for non-metallic material.

A still further object is to provide a simplified construction embodying an eicient sliding door run guide in combination with the cabinet body proper.

Other features of the construction will be more apparent as the description of the invention unfolds below. For a visual understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawings in which like parts are referred to by like reference numerals throughout the several views illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, and in which- Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the medicine cabinet embodying the inventive improvements.

2,770,515 Patented Nov. 13, 1956 ice Fig. 2 is a reduced perspective view of the improved medicine cabinet, showing the sliding door about half raised.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view thereof, taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged detailed sectional view taken substantially on the line 4 4 of Fig. l, and showing the improved sliding door guide construction.

Fig. 5 is a lfragmentary enlarged vertical sectional view of the upper portion of the medicine cabinet, showing the novel and inventive door catch construction, with the door outlined in broken lines when it is raised above the catch.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged front elevational view, partially in section, of the portion shown in Fig. 5, and taken substantially on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

As shown in the drawings, the improved medicine cabinet construction consists of a recessed box-like cabinet body 10, provided with spaced apart horizontal shelves 12, the cabinet body being designed for insertion in a wall 14, by methods and means well known in the build ing arts. On the front of the cabinet body 10 is provided a vertically sliding door 16, arranged and conjoined as will be more particularly described below.

The cabinet body has outwardly directed front facing anges 18. To each vertical side flange 18 and on the front side thereof closely adjacent the recessed portion of cabinet body 10 is aiixed a retainer strip 20, by welding or other suitable means. The retainer strip is arranged with an outwardly opening channel portion 22 within which is located a non-metallic door run guide 24, preferably made of polyethylene and comprising a body portion 26, fitting closely within retainer channel portion 22, and a door run 4guide channel 28. Structurally strengthening ribs 30 are integrally formed in guide 24 to stifen it and assist in taking the various stress forces developed in raising and lowering sliding door 16.

The door construction consists of two mirrors 32, a1'- ranged at an angle to each other about a horizontal line and retained in a door frame 34 by means of clips and restraining elements 36. Door frame 34 comprises side panels 38, a top panel 40, a bottom panel 42, and front facing upper and lower panels 44. Door frame 34 may be integrally formed from a single piece of material such as sheet metal, or it may be formed of separate pieces suitably conjoined. The door side panels 38 are provided with an inturned flange 46 at the end of which is a channel element 48, which dovetails with a smooth sliding running tit in the non-metallic door run guide channel 28.

At the bottoni of sliding door 16 and central thereof is a door lift 50, held to the door frame lbottom panel 42 by means of a bolt 52. Above door frame bottom panel 42 is a counterbalance ribbon connecting clip 54, also held in place by bolt 52. It will be noted that door frame bottom panel 42 and door lift 5t) project well within the plane of retainer strip 20 for purposes to be explained immediately below.

In the upper portion of the cabinet body lll is provided an open front horizontal metallic shelf 56, to which is affixed by welding or other suitable means, a flexible metal spring catch 58, substantially centrally positioned and slightly forwardly projecting and depending from shelf 56. The catch 58 consists of a horizontally affixed portion 60, an angularly forwardly projecting portion 62, and a reverse bent portion 64 ending in a downturned flange 66. The angular forwardly projecting portion 62 extends outwardly from shelf 56 suicient to overhang and engage the door frame bottom panel 42 as it travels upwardly upon raising door 16.

At the top of the cabinet body 1li and within its recessed portion is axed a downwardly depending support clip 63, which engages and supports the forward end of a spring type counterbalancer 70. A second support clip 'i2 for counterbalancer 7i) is aixed to the rear interior side of cabinet body 10, for retaining the counterbalancer in xed position. A counterbalance ribbon '74 issues from the counterbalancer and is connected to the door `frame clip by a joining ring 76.

In operation, sliding door 16 is designed to run in the non-metallic door run guide channel 28, which is exible, yielding and noise reducing in character. Door lift 50 is grasped from the front ,and raises the sliding door i6 until the door frame bottom panel 42 meets the catch reverse bent portion 64. This will stop the upward travel of the sliding `door 16. By applying an inwardly directed force to the catch downturned flange 66, the reverse bent portion 64 will move inwardly of the cabinet body 10 until it clears the door frame bottom panel 42, thus permitting the door 16 to continue its upward travel, if actuated. This is clearly shown in Fig. 5, in broken lines.

Upon lowering sliding door 16, the door frame bottom panel 42 or door lift 50 will force the spring catch 5S to move inwardly, as it moves down the angularly inclined catch portion 62, until the door frame bottom panel 42 passes catch portion 64. The catch 5S will then snap back into its outwardly projecting overhanging normal position. Catch 53 is offset slightly from center of the cabinet body 10 to clear thevcounerbalancer ribbon 74 and door frame clip S4.

It is preferred to ax upper shelf 56 permanently to cabinet body 10, Whereas the remaining shelves 12 may be removable and of glass, if desired.

The sliding door frame top panel 40 comes to rest upon the top edges of the side retainer strips 20 which are vafiixed to cabinet side front facing ilanges 1S.

The sliding door mirrors 32 may also be arranged in a common plane, or may be replaced with a single mirror, if desired.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains that various modi'iications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or from the scope of the appended claims.

-I claim:

1. In -a medicine cabinet of the type described, a vertically sliding door construction consisting of a door frame having front, side, top and bottom panels, a cabinet body in the form of a recessed box-like structure having vertical side aHixed door guides adapted to receive and guide said sliding door frame, a horizontal shelf in said cabinet body defining said cabinet into upper and lower compartments, said shelf supporting a exible retractable spring-type door catch having an angular outwardly projecting downwardly directed portion partially overhanging said sliding door trame bottom panel, said flexible door catch angular portion being retractable from over said door frame bottom panel upon application of manual pressure inwardly of said cabinet body, said flexible door catch limiting movement of said sliding door in its upward travel prior to retraction of said .door catch, said iiexible door catch being urged inwardly of said cabinet body upon downward travel of said sliding doorby said door frame bottom panel, said door frame being releasably stopped in its upward travel by said door catch at the upper limit of said lower compartment, providing access to said lower compartment and maintaining said upper compartment in full closed condition.

2. In a medicine cabinet of the type described, a cabinet body in the form of a recessed box structure having vetrical side aixed door guides, a sliding door for said box structure vertically arranged in said guides and having an inwardly extending lower flange, a horizontal shelf fixed in said cabinet body dening said cabinet into upper and lower compartments, said shelf supporting a exible, retractable door catch projectingy outwardly from said shelf in overlapping relation with said lower flange of ,said door and positioned to releasably limit upward travel of said door in said guides, said door being releasably stopped in its upper travel by said door catch at a position fully exposing said lower compartment, said door catch being retractable from its stop position against said door flange to permit further upward travel of said door whereby said upper compartment is exposed to full access, said tlexible door catch being urged inwardly of said cabinet body upon downward travel of said sliding door by said kdoor iiange, whereby said upper and lower compartments are closed to access upon reaching the lower limit of travel by said sliding door, said exible retractible door catch being disposed in the vsaid lower compartment and exposed to full access when said sliding door is raised to expose the lower compartment and to mask said upper compartment.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNTED STATES PATENTS `654,383 Carleton July 24, 1900 1,152,404- Eldridge Sept. 7, 1915 1,426,010 VRees Aug. 15, 1'922 2,043,886 De Boer June 9, 1936 2,097,480 Visser Nov. 2, 1937 2,331,655 Colwill Oct. 12, 1943 2,473,239 Boyd June 14, 1949 

